Understanding the physics of earthquake rupture plays a key role in the prediction of near-field ground motion and in the physical comprehension of earthquake initiation, propagation and healing. Close to fault rupture, earthquake source dynamics can be considered as a key element for understanding earthquake damage distribution.

Recent improvements in seismological, geological and geodetic observations, computational resources and methods, enable us to image and study earthquake sources on various scales. However, despite the large amount of high‐quality data collected in local, regional and teleseismic distances, earthquake source processes are often, not sufficiently understood and in some cases the results are controversial.

The goal of this session is to encourage contributions on broad aspects of earthquake source studies ranging from the smallest‐scale laboratory experiments to mega thrust earthquake studies. Submissions focusing on focal mechanisms, moment tensors, source slip inversions, finite fault and back‐projection techniques and their applications, resolution limits and related uncertainties are particularly welcome as well as physics‐based simulations.

We aim to summarize the current state‐of‐the‐art knowledge on the earthquake source processes as well as to provide guidelines for future research. In addition, the session aims to review studies of source imaging (model parameterization, data, wave modelling, and optimization) as well as frequency‐dependent source parameters, imaging of dynamic rupture, characterization of source complexity, scaling etc.